Kyrie Irving stumbles on his way to making 'The Leap'

It started with this column by Jason Lloyd in Sunday's Akron Beacon Journal.
“Something changed within (Kyrie) Irving last season, and it coincided with his return from All-Star weekend,” Lloyd wrote. “It was evident to anyone around the team, particularly former coach Byron Scott, who told me in the days before he was fired, 'I haven't changed, but he has.' ”
That coincided with what I had watched last season, and what I have been seeing from the Cavs' best player this season.
Irving is in his third year.
This is when many superstars make “The Leap” — the season in which their game makes its greatest improvement. Usually, The Leap brings the additional, more important, benefit of the star's team showing signs of becoming a legitimate title contender.
After I read Lloyd's column, I started looking up the third seasons of the players who will join him in the starting lineup for the Eastern Conference in the 2014 All-Star game.

In 2005-06, LeBron James' third season, the Cavs — after an offseason spending spree that, in hindsight, turned out to be a mistake — were 50-32 and were eliminated by the Pistons in seven games in the East semis.
James' supporting cast that year included Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Larry Hughes, Flip Murray and Drew Gooden.
Is that better than the crew with which the Cavs have supported Irving this season? Probably.
But how about the 2004-05 Cavs?
That team, led by a 20-year-old James, was 42-40 in the star's second season. The Cavs' top five scorers were James, Ilgauskas, Gooden, Jeff McInnis and Ira Newble.
The 2013-14 Cavs would have to win 26 of their last 38 games to get to 42 victories.
OK, James is in another world when it comes to NBA players, so let's move on to the rest of the East's starting lineup.

Two of James' buddies from the great 2004 draft — Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade — led their clubs to 44-38 and 52-30 finishes, respectively, in their third seasons.
Anthony's Nuggets lost to the Lakers in five games in the first round of the playoffs. Denver's roster, to be fair, was better than the one on which Irving currently resides. The Nuggets' top scorers in 2005-06 were Anthony, Andre Miller, Ruben Patterson, Kenyon Martin and Marcus Camby.
Wade, meanwhile, led the 2005-06 Heat to an NBA title. Yes, he played with Shaquille O'Neal, but Miami's roster wasn't loaded. The Heat's Nos. 3-5 scorers were Jason Williams (the point guard known as “White Chocolate”), Antoine Walker and Udonis Haslem.
If you put 2014 Kyrie on that team in place of Wade, would Miami have won the championship?

The East's other All-Star starter, Paul George, was drafted 10th overall in 2010. (By comparison, Irving and James went first in their respective drafts, Anthony third and Wade fifth.)
The Pacers — with a lineup that was vastly superior than any team on which Irving has competed — were 52-29 and advanced to the East finals last season, George's third year in the league.

If you move over to the West, Kevin Durant's Thunder were a lowly 43-121 in his first two seasons.
In 2009-10, his third year, Oklahoma City won 50 games and lost to the Lakers in six games in the first round of the postseason.
The Thunder's second- and third-leading scorers that season were Russell Westbrook (in his second year) and Jeff Green. James Harden averaged only 22.9 minutes and shot 40.3% from the field that season, and Serge Ibaka played 18.1 minutes per game as a rookie.

Chris Paul — guided at the time by Irving's former coach, Byron Scott — was a combined 10 games under .500 in his first two seasons with New Orleans. In 2007-08, his third year, the Hornets were 56-26 and took the Spurs to the limit in the West semis.
That team had an impressive top four of Paul, David West, Peja Stojakovic and Tyson Chandler.
Are any of these comparisons fair to Irving?
The answer depends on your perspective.
If you're going strictly by supporting casts, the reply is no.
But if Irving is a true superstar and All-Star starter, the Cavs, even with this mismatched crew of bumbled draft picks and poor free-agent signings, should be much better than 16-28.
Irving has missed 41 of 192 games in three seasons.
In games he's missed, the Cavs are an atrocious 10-31, a .244 winning percentage.
In games in which he's played, they aren't much better — 51-100 (.338).
He's a very good player, but he's yet to prove he is great.
Irving's field-goal percentage has gone down each season — from 46.9% as a rookie to 45.2 in Year 2 and 42.7 this season.
His 3-point accuracy has dropped each season, and so has his free-throw percentage.
This season, his assists are up and his turnovers are down, but his scoring has dropped a point per game (to 21.5), his rebounds are down from 3.7 to 3.0 and his steals have decreased from 1.5 to 1.2.
Then there's his defense, which seems to alternate from bad to James Harden. (When you get a chance, watch the Rockets guard “play defense.”)
Mike Brown is blamed for much of the Cavs' struggles — and a lot of it is deserved.
But Irving should be better, too.
The Cavs are 4-5 with Luol Deng in the lineup and they're two games behind Charlotte for the final playoff spot in the East.
They have slipped five games behind seventh-place Brooklyn. The rejuvenated Nets have won 10 of 11, meaning the Cavs, even if they do stumble into the postseason with 35 to 37 wins, likely would be guaranteed to face the Pacers or Heat in the first round. (Do you see them catching the Nets, Wizards, Bulls or Raptors at this point?)
By now, after four top-four picks in three years, plenty of cap space and assets that were saved for the type of trade Chris Grant made to acquire Deng from the Bulls, we should be seeing the results.
Mike Brown hasn't been good. (For an example of the importance of an NBA coach, look at what the Bulls have done without Derrick Rose and Deng.)
Irving hasn't been good enough.
“He has the opportunity to sign a max contract this summer, and the Cavs will certainly offer it,” Lloyd wrote in his outstanding column on Irving. “I wonder, however, has he actually earned it?”
The simple answer is no.
Maybe part of the blame falls on us.
Maybe we have expected too much.
Maybe, despite the All-Star accolades, Irving, even in Year 3, isn't close to being a player capable of leading his team to a championship.

Tribe Fest is a hit

Mother Nature, as is often the case, was pretty brutal on the Indians.
Still, the team says Tribe Fest, which was held over the weekend at Progressive Field, was a success.
The team says it sold almost 7,000 tickets for the event — a jump of 25% from the inaugural event in 2013.
The Tribe brought in a star-studded lineup of current and former players for the festivities, which made for an interesting follow on Twitter the last few days.
There were pictures of Slider surrounded by the Fox Sports Ohio girls, kids getting autographs and even buzz cuts — and yes, manager Terry Francona, bundled up for the ride home, zooming off on his scooter.
If you missed it, check out this photo gallery the Tribe posted from the event.
And remember: Pitchers and catchers report in two weeks.
Maybe by then it will have warmed up to 30 degrees.
You can follow me on Twitter for sports information, analysis and, hopefully, an admission that I was dead wrong to be down on Kyrie Irving.

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